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Importing from China

Find out everything you need to know about manufacturing, shipping, and dealing with suppliers in China.

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Buying on Alibaba Guide: Price Negotiation, Payment, & Shipping

Updated in May, 2018 with up to date information for buying from Alibaba in 2018. 

Alibaba is the place to go when looking for Suppliers to buy private label products in China from. Using Alibaba, on the surface, seems relatively straight forward. But how do you find reliable suppliers, negotiate with them, and get your products shipped? In this article we’ll cover all of these things.

In this article we will not cover how to find great products to import from China.

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Where to Find Suppliers Outside of Alibaba

If you’ve ever been trying to source products from China, you’ve almost certainly used Alibaba. Truth be told, Alibaba is the Amazon of Chinese suppliers. But much like you use Amazon for almost everything but not everything, the same is true for Alibaba. It works most of the time, but not all of the time.

In this post we’ll reveal some of the  places to look for products to import from China outside of Alibaba.

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How to Find the Perfect Product to Import from China and Sell Online

Updated in January, 2018 with up to date information for finding products in 2018. 

One of the hardest things for any entrepreneur looking to start an ecommerce business is picking the right product to sell. In today’s ecommerce world the businesses that thrive and survive are those that have their own brands. In this article we’ll discuss how to find products to sell online, how to do research to get estimated sales volume,

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How to Import from China Quickly, Safely, & Cheaply (Mega Guide)

In this guide I will walk you through how to import your first products from China. I’ll cover the entire process including identifying good and bad products to import to sell on Amazon and other channels, finding good suppliers and weeding through the bad suppliers, and how to get your shipments from China cheaply and quickly. I’ve written this article with Amazon and ecommerce sellers in mind but even if you’re a traditional wholesaler or retailer you should get a lot of value out of this article.

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I Worked at an Amazon FBA Warehouse for a Week – Here’s What I Learned

For years I’ve been trying to get a tour of an Amazon warehouse. These are actually possible at a few of Amazon warehouses, but the wait lists are huge and I’ve never been able to successfully get a tour.

So while eating ramen one night and reading a local newspaper, I saw an ad that Amazon was hiring for their Vancouver warehouse and knew this was the perfect opportunity to finally get my tour!

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The Chinese Are Coming to Eat Your Ecommerce Lunch in 2018 – Here’s How They’re Doing It

In 2016 I wrote a post, The Chinese Are Coming – More and More Chinese Are Selling Direct to Consumers. The post detailed how more and more Chinese are now selling on Amazon and other ecommerce platforms.

Well, in 2017 the Chinese have officially arrived at the ecommerce walls of America. Some estimates put the total Amazon.com market share from Chinese Sellers as high as 25% and this number is only likely to rise.

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How to Avoid Crappy Products When Importing from China

In part 1 of this mini-series, I discussed how to avoid scams but I also emphasized that scams are incredibly rare when importing from China.

However, as rare as scams in China may be, poor quality products are equally as common. If you’re an Amazon seller, all of your efforts to try and get positive product reviews through things like email auto-responders and packaging inserts will be in vain if you have crappy quality products.

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The Ultimate Guide to Avoid Being Scammed on Alibaba and When Importing

One of the biggest fears new importers have is being scammed by a Supplier out of hundreds or thousands of dollars. The idea of wiring a bunch of money to some foreign bank account in China who they’ve never met or know barely anything about is scary. The good news is that scams are extremely rare originating in China and can be avoided almost entirely with just a bit of caution. The bad news is that there still countless people being scammed all the time often by making careless mistakes.

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What Suppliers Don’t Know is Hurting Your Business

In my recent trip to China this April I attended the Canton Fair for my third time. I met with dozens of Suppliers with varying levels of sophistication from Suppliers who have dealt with the largest retailers in the world to Suppliers who couldn’t speak a word of English. But no matter what level of sophistication the Suppliers had it struck me that there are three business concepts that are extremely important to Western buyers that very few Chinese Suppliers get.

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